Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), specialized United Nations (UN) agency whose main goal is to eliminate hunger on a world scale. The organization’s mandate is to “raise levels of nutrition, improve agricultural productivity, better the lives of rural populations and contribute to the growth of the world economy.”

The FAO originated at a conference called by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Hot Springs, Virginia, in May 1943. The 34 nations represented established the UN Interim Commission on Food and Agriculture. In October 1945 the first session of the FAO was held in Québec City, Canada.

At present the organization represents more than 190 member countries plus the European Union; it is headed by a director general. Each member nation has one vote in the general conference, the policymaking body that convenes once every two years to approve programs, budgets, and rules of procedure, as well as to make recommendations on agricultural questions. The 49-member FAO council meets between conference sessions to monitor the world food situation and suggest necessary action. The council’s committees deal with problems on agriculture, commodities, forestry, and fisheries. The third organ, the secretariat, is responsible for implementing FAO programs. Main headquarters is in Rome, Italy.

Functions of the FAO include collecting, analyzing, and distributing information about nutrition, food, and agriculture; fostering conservation of natural resources; and promoting both adequate national and international agricultural-credit policies and international agricultural-commodity arrangements. Among its projects are the development of basic soil and water resources; the international exchange of new types of plants; the control of animal diseases and plant diseases; and the provision to needy member nations of technical assistance in such fields as nutrition, food preservation, irrigation, soil conservation, and reforestation. In recent years, the FAO has worked to develop new plant mutations by using radioactive materials, to aid developing nations in cultivating fast-growing varieties of crops such as rice and wheat, and to establish monitoring networks to warn of possible food shortages (such as the current potential for widespread starvation in Africa).

In 1974 the FAO helped organize the World Food Conference, held in Rome, which considered the critical problem of maintaining adequate food supplies. On the recommendation of the conference, the FAO expanded its information-gathering services to facilitate improved worldwide food security.